Open data

The Queensland Museum Network has responsibility for a significant amount of collection and research information which has been recorded over the 150 years of the Museum's history. We aim to develop, document, implement, maintain and review our datasets for release to the public in the hope that they can be used by the community in the co-creation of new services and improvement of existing services.

Cultural Environment collection datasets

Queensland Museum collection of Ethnographic objectsSpecialist collections including Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, Australian South Sea Islander and Pacific Islands collections.Colonial and state histories of Queensland are represented in this collection. Specialist collections include railway, maritime, road, and aviation transport; science and technology in society; fashion and textiles; everyday domestic paraphernalia; ceramics; musical instruments and audiovisual technology.

Natural Environment collection datasets

Queensland Museum Amphibians and ReptilesOur herpetology collections include all reptile and amphibian species presently know to occur in Queensland. Many of these are endemic to narrowly defined habitats. Of particular interest are species occurring in the Brigalow Belt and the Wet Tropics World Heritage area.

Queensland Museum ArachnidsQueensland has a highly diverse fauna of spiders, mites and other arachnids. Until recently collections focussed on rainforest regions, but attention has turned to dry habitats and coastal forests, yielding many new discoveries.

Queensland Museum BirdsOur bird collection focuses on Queensland and Papua New Guinea regions, documenting an historical record of species distributions, past and present.

Queensland Museum CoralsThe Museum of Tropical Queensland, Townsville, is home to our internationally recognised collection of hard corals. The collection is a comprehensive coverage of Indo-Pacific Scleractinia, particularly from the Great Barrier Reef of Australia.

Queensland Museum CrustaceansQueensland has the highest diversity of marine and terrestrial crustaceans in Australia, largely due to the rich diversity of habitats in these tropical and subtropical climates.

Queensland Museum EntomologyOur entomology collections focus on Queensland and adjacent Papua New Guinea and West Pacific regions. With the Wet Tropics World Heritage Area of Queensland having the highest insect diversity in Australia, these collections take on a special significance.

Queensland Museum FishesFishes are the most diverse of all the vertebrates. The estimated 5,000 species that occur in Australian waters are amongst the most diverse marine fauna of any country, and many of these species occur in Queensland waters.

Queensland Museum MammalsOur mammal collection focuses on Queensland and Papua New Guinea regions, documenting an historical record of species distributions, past and present.

Queensland Museum MolluscsQueensland has extraordinarily high diversities of marine and terrestrial molluscs. These encompass the megadiverse faunas of the Great Barrier Reef, the Wet Tropics and the Brigalow Belt with over 17,000 species represented in our collections.

Queensland Museum Other InvertebratesWith the Great Barrier Reef our most important marine biodiversity resource, the Queensland Museum has a strong focus on marine invertebrates, including sessile, free-living and parasitic species.

Queensland Museum PalaeontologyHow fauna groups responded to climatic and other environmental stresses is important to the determination of their conservation status. Fossil collections enable new knowledge of Queensland's recent and extinct biota and its geoheritage.

Queensland Museum PoriferaQueensland Museum collections have a strong focus on marine invertebrates as the dominant components of our vast reef and seabed faunas and sponges (Porifera) are an important contributor to these.

Queensland Museum ProtozoansThese collections focus on parasitic protozoans, including the largest collection in the world of avian haemaotozoa (formerly the International Reference Centre for Avian Haematozoa), the historical collections of Bancroft and Mackerras from the former School of Tropical Medicine, Townsville and, more recently, myxozoan parasites of fishes.